Denied Unemployment
by YellowTrumpets
Summary: One-shot. All Cloud wanted was to quit working for Hades. But the God of the Underworld has a policy about contracts. You can't get out of them.


Disclaimer: Disney and Squaresoft own the characters herein. If I owned them, Cid would have a voice. Instead of speech bubbles. This fic attempts to present a more realistic view of Cloud in his employment under Hades. I mean, you can't just break a contract with him whenever you want. That was kind of the whole subplot of the movie. Anyway, read and review.

…

_This could be worse_, Cloud reflected grimly.

_It could be cold._

Every day Hades, his _boss_, would come down to where Cloud sat imprisoned and would ask him the same question. And every day Cloud would give him the same answer. Then Hades would smoke at the head and would send some form of extremely nasty-looking demon to torture Cloud for a couple of hours, just for the hell of it.

Cloud winced. Hades would be here any moment. Like clockwork, he was. Not surprising, considering how obsessed the man…er…god was with contracts. Cloud certainly remembered when he tried to get out of _his._

_It was just after the tournament. That kid, Sora, had just defeated Cerberus and had practically skipped back to his gummi ship with his two really weird companions, Hero's License clutched tight in one hand. Cloud figured he was meant to give the kid some advice on life or some crap like that, but instead Sora ended up giving him a little bit of hope, and that hope gave Cloud the figurative brass testes to "request" a cessation of all employment under the God of the Underworld. Hades had been less than amused, most likely due to the fact that a boy whose voice hadn't even changed yet had defeated his most fearsome creation. Of course, said boy did have the Keyblade. And was assisted by none other than Hercules, the bane of old flame-head's existence. None of that seemed to matter to Hades, especially when the blue god had been faced with Maleficent's familiar, told-you-so evil smirk. Hades had precious little patience normally, and this had been magnified by his recent embarrassment. Needless to say, Cloud caught him at a bad time._

"_Tell me you're kidding, punk," Hades had growled. Cloud stood his ground. "No way. I want out, Hades. I'm tired of being your errand boy."_

"_Oh, please. You think you can quit just like that? Even if I wanted to release you, which I don't, blondie-bear, I couldn't do it just by saying so. These sorts of contracts are quite binding, in more than a legal sense. Not put it together yet? Well, maybe there is something to be said for all those blond jokes out there. Lemme put it in words you'd understand. I . Own. You. **Dude**."_

_Cloud had scowled. "Have it your way then. In any case, I won't be doing any more "jobs" for you."_

_Hades had sighed, and rubbed his temples. "Zeus, you mortals are annoying. All your notions of being some kind of hero, saving the girl from the evil, evil bad guy. I'm having enough trouble dealing with Mr. Big-Biceps-and-Toothy-Grin up there putting a hitch in all my best plans, now you have to go and grow a conscience. Don't you care about finding that "light" of yours?"_

_**Forgive me, Aerith**, Cloud had silently said. He looked his employer squarely in the eye. "I don't care anymore."_

_Hades raised an eyebrow, deceptively calm. This usually meant that he was very, extremely, pissed-off. "Well," he had mused, " I just suppose I'll have to find a way to make you care."_

And thus this daily ritual had begun. It had gotten worse when Hercules had "saved" the other agent, Megara, and the two of them began living together. The last time Cloud had seen Meg, she was dazed with love. Cloud told her to go for it, to try to escape Hades. "Trust me," he had said, "You don't get a second chance at love in this universe. Believe me."

Cloud sometimes wondered that if he had been silent, would Meg have still gone? Most likely. But in a somewhat selfish way he wished she were still around. As backstabbing and duplicitous she could be at times, she was a good friend.

Hades was in a better mood some days. Apparently Maleficent had been killed by Sora, who proceeded to seal Kingdom Hearts and destroy Ansem, the leader of the Heartless, and Cloud's old king. When he heard the news about Maleficent, Cloud could have sworn he heard Hades mutter, "Serves her right. Dismal old bitch."

Cloud had been proud to hear about Sora's victory over Ansem. Hades had not. The god was more determined than ever to take down Sora, before the Keyblade Master came after him next. Hades's daily demands became more insistent, and Cloud was having a hard time keeping his cool and remaining strong. **_ Happy place…_**

The God of the Underworld made his entrance, startling Cloud back to the present. "I have a job for you, straw-head," he leered, leaning against the cell walls. Cloud sighed. He knew the script to this rerun by heart. "What do you _want_, Hades?"

Hades smirked. "I want you to kill the Keyblade Master."

Cloud gritted his teeth for a moment, summoning inner strength to face the abuse he knew was coming. Sounding bored, he said, "Not interested."

Hades leaned in closer, his mistake. "Oh, but I insist."

Before the god could move back, Cloud spat in his face. "Lemme put this in words you'd understand," the blond swordsman said. "Rot. In. Hell."

Hades grimaced, wiping the spittle off his face with the edge of the tattered robe he wore.

"No, thanks, I'm quite comfortable here," he said amicably. "You, however, now you're going to wish you could rot. It would put you out of your misery, to be sure. Ah, anyway, can't say I didn't try."

The blue god walked out of the cell, waving a negligent hand. "See you tomorrow then, Spikes."

Cloud watched him go and also watched his new "companion" enter. _Another demon_, he mused. _I hate demons._

Hades closed the cell door and pushed his ear up against it. The screams would be here any minute now. The god of the underworld grinned. _I love my job._

…_fin…_

A/N: Ooo, mean Hades. Probably darker than I usually write, and it features Cloud, which is strange. Not a big Cloud fan. But I like KH Cloud better. Generally speaking, he's not so much of a whiny man-ho as FF7 Cloud. Unless I want him to be. Press that button. And back that thang up.


End file.
